


Judging a Book

by laufey



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Humor, Language Barrier, M/M, Mild angst but happy ending, Missing Scene, National Nordic stereotypes, On the road to Odense, Switching between two different scenes happening a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 12:39:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9235595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laufey/pseuds/laufey
Summary: Sometimes the best way to be understood is by not trying to explain yourself.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rusakko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rusakko/gifts).



_Splish, splash, splish, a light step after another. It's just like walking through a very shallow puddle, no matter how deep the waters here really are. He recalls, for a moment, a picture he saw in that one house full of old world artifacts, of a ship in a storm and a man dressed in a white nightie with a red quilt on his shoulders, standing on the water next to it, calmly reaching a hand toward one of the sailors who appears to have fallen off the ship._   
  
_There must have been mages even back then, a hundred years ago, he concludes and wishes he could speak with them to ask for, well, he doesn't exactly know what. A little guidance maybe? Some tips on doing just what the man in the picture is doing, blurring the real and the dreaming together enough to be able to walk on water even when awake? He continues on, lost in thoughts, and the vast nothingness turns into a lake in a forest._   
  
_The mage sleeps._

 

Houses here were usually nothing but husks. Fallen in roofs, holes in windows, unlivable for trolls but also no use for the team. Anything inside would have rotted away ages ago, especially books. The tank rolled past yet another old farm house and Lalli was quietly happy about how flat this weird country was. He hadn't felt sick since they started on the big road, and leaning his chin on his palms he watched the ruins slowly disappear out of sight.

Emil entered the room, stepping carefully over a long, red braid lying on the floor like some huge maggot, and looked at him with the usual worried expression that always meant he was going to tell him to get some sleep. As if he didn't try to, Lalli returned his gaze to the world outside, it was just so hard to sleep here in the Silent World. Anyway it wasn't like it was only him. Mikkel was the last to go to bed and the first to get up, Tuuri walked around at night when she thought no one saw it, Sigrun slept long, but never seemed completely rested for some reason. 

The only ones that actually got some good night's sleep were Emil and the useless Icelandic mage. Maybe they just didn't completely understand how dangerous it was out here, Lalli thought bitterly, sheltered Swedes, invincible Icelanders... and at that his thoughts were interrupted.

"Lalli, sine... eeeh... nukkua. Nyt."

Despite himself Lalli felt the sides of his mouth try to lift a little. Emil's Finnish was hopeless and stupid, and far as Lalli was concerned he should stop trying already, but nevertheless his hesitant voice and weird pronunciation put him immediately on a better mood. He slid off his perch by the window and wandered to the sleeping area, stepping carefully onto the braid on his way, and crawled to his chosen sleeping spot under a bed. Might as well at least try, there was no telling when he'd be sent out to scout again.

 

_He doesn't know why he's here right now, there's no pressing reason to go meet Onni, but, he thinks, since they're both mages it's probably best that they stick together. They should become friends, he smiles to himself. Granted, the last times they've met haven't actually gone as smoothly as one would wish, but there have always been some other pressing issues. Like ghosts._

_Alas, his timing seems to be a little bit off, Onni's asleep here in his dream haven. He knows he could just wake him up but that's a bit rude isn't it, not a good way to start making friends. Instead he sits down on the rocky ground to wait for Onni to wake up on his own._

_His braid slides to the side and plunks soundlessly into the lake. Annoyed, he drags it back up and attempts to shake it dry. Small droplets of water hit the surface of the lake, and as he watches the rings spread across he suddenly wonders what the others might be doing at this moment. Weren't they going to do something? Problem is that he doesn't really share a language with them, and though he can understand a word here and there that's not nearly enough to follow what's being said. The lake seems to darken a little in colour and suddenly, as if clouds were parting, a little scene opens up for him._

_The cat tank, slowing to a halt. A small village a little way away, or it is something else? He can't see properly but it would seem to be buildings of some kind. Lalli exits first, stretches and yawns before starting to jog toward the buildings. He seems nonchalant and doesn't even glance around himself. Well, to be fair, on an open ground like this nothing's going to creep upon Lalli by surprise he thinks, and continues watching as another person walks out and breaks into a run._

 

"Wait - wait for me, I'm - coming with - you!"

Lalli stopped and glanced behind him. What now? 'Vänta' meant he was supposed to wait - for what, had he forgotten something? Emil did not continue and after a while it began to dawn on him that he'd not get to do his work normally this time.

"Nei", he tried, hoping that it would be enough. It wasn't. Emil just burst into a long sentence that made no sense, yet managed to sound apologetic and stubborn enough to drive the point home, he was going to tag along no matter what for whatever stupid reason. Lalli sighed, turned around and continued running. It was a short distance, just a lonely, weird, long building with an empty space in front of it. They walked up to a door that stood ajar. That decided it, Lalli thought, this building was likely not livable for anything.

They stepped into the building and Emil did an almost immediate nosedive over some heap of rubbish on the floor. Lalli watched him pick himself up, then grab something from the floor. A book. Lying here right behind an open door. Emil was quickly leafing it through, squinting his eyes at the text that seemed to be handwritten, and Lalli had to poke him a bit to remind him why they were here now. Emil jumped a bit, laughed and shrugged, saying something while pointing at the book. Lalli looked at the book just in case there was something to be seen but no, it was just a very boring little notebook kind of a thing.

 

_He lies on his stomach, leaning his face on both hands. This is amazing! He has never been able to do anything like this in a dream before! Obviously it's possible it's all just a dream, or another vision, but it's unlike anything he remembers seeing before._

_Not that he remembers much of anything he's seen in his dreams before, but still._

_The land is flatter than any land should be, not a mountain in sight. Just fields and fields and a long road crawling over it. The cat tank is parked now, not too close to the building, and for a moment he wonders if he could see through the roof to see where in the house Emil and Lalli are. Before him the water shimmers a little and slowly the building below turns transparent, revealing the ruins of a long room and a few corridors that seem to be leading to other rooms. He smiles - it's obviously an ancient guesthouse!_

_Then another detail grabs his attention, previously hidden behind the house but now just as visible as Emil and Lalli are. A small car, and though he's no expert he can tell it's another small military vehicle, rusted and somewhat grown over... but not, he suddenly realizes, not enough for a Y0 car. He leans forward to see better, and with a heavy splap his braid falls into the pool like a coil of rope, shattering the image._

 

They turned a corner that ended in a pair of glass doors. This time Emil didn't even try to push a door open but knocked the pane a little with his flashlight, shattering the old glass. He glanced over to Lalli who was simply looking back at him, and shrugged again.

"This... this is what we in the line of business call a crap house, see", he tried to sound confident and not like he was just repeating something out of memory. "It's full of holes so... nothing can live here. Anything that tried to would freeze solid the first winter."

Lalli turned his attention to the corridor beyond and slunk through the broken bottom half of the door. After a while Emil managed to follow. If he thought about it, he couldn't really explain why he stubbornly kept talking to Lalli even when he knew he couldn't understand it. Maybe it was to help him learn Swedish? Maybe sometimes he actually seemed to almost understand. Maybe - maybe it was just so easy being around him that he forgot what was logical. He bumped into Lalli's shoulder, he had stopped and was listening to something for a while, but soon decided to continue. Yup, crap house, safe house.

He had to admit though that for a crap house it was actually somehow comfortable. Obviously it was humid and cold, but there was hardly any draft in this corridor. There was also very little natural light he thought, and looked up to where the corridor ended in a few sheets of corrugated iron and old planks of wood hammered into the wall, likely to block the window.

Wonder what that had been about. Lalli had disappeared, but this time instead of looking for him blindly Emil decided to wait for him instead and returned to the travel diary. Weather had got to it and many parts were stuck together, ink running into pale, pink rings, but here and there a few words remained.

"ave to continue forward, the plan is to drive around Odense without entering the city. Radio is out of range but I might be ab"

"2°C fever, rash, it's not just"

"We're setting up camp near Odense in an old hotel. It feels cruel to just wait and watch, but neither of us can put a stop to it, we can't. I can't. She lied, she should never have been here, she"

"almar's gone now. I'll try to make this place as comfortable for Jytte as possible and then I'll leave."

Emil was beginning to feel strangely uneasy about the diary. What had begun like a story of a fun road trip seemed to have taken a bad turn at some point, and the mention of fever and rash could scarcely be a coincidence. Still, that had been almost a hundred years ago and back then his house no doubt hosted a good number of trolls and beasts and what else, before it had fallen to ruin. That would explain why they had boarded up the walls too didn't it, to keep something from entering the building.

Lalli poked him on the shoulder. After a while Emil picked himself up from the floor where he had fallen with a graceless, muffled scream, said ha-ha a few times hoping to sound convincing, and dusted himself. Lalli had already retreated into a room he had been inspecting, and Emil followed him, full of curiousity.

At first he didn't really understand what Lalli was pointing at, but suddenly the shape began to make sense. A generator! A small, portable generator, perfect for camping out in a building like this no doubt. It was covered in dust but otherwise in good condition - amazingly good for something so old - and so similar to the ones he was used to operating that he thought he'd probably be able to switch it on. He dropped the diary on a table and took a better look at the generator.

Oooobviously it wouldn't work, he thought and shook the generator a little, hearing a small slosh of fuel. Nah, that would never work, he almost said aloud as he turned a few switches. It would be too funny if this antique thing would run, and with that thought he pulled the starting cord. The generator coughed at him a few times and then, miraculously, put-putted into life. For a long while they just sat near the generator, staring at it, listening to it purr away until Lalli wandered over to the door and turned the lights on.

 

_Finally the water is still again. Concentrating on wanting to see the inside of the house he notices something more alarming: most of the house has fallen apart, but the part where Lalli and Emil are has been fixed to something livable and... dark. Somewhat recently fixed too, being Icelandic he knows all too well how little time it takes for houses to get torn apart by the elements; these reparations cannot be older than ten years. Fifteen, if Danish weather is more forgiving than Icelandic._

_When did the Danes attempt to take back their lands? Not so many years ago, he thinks but cannot remember the year, should have paid more attention in history class. Would it have been possible that some of them had scattered from the main army somehow, maybe somehow escaped in panic during that one night of attack?_

_There they are, Lalli and Emil illuminated by a strange, flickering light. For some reason they seem to be applauding. And there, behind them, something moves._

 

Emil turned to get a better look at the room. Something about the room didn't seem right although he couldn't quite point out what it was. Lalli noticed it immediately, crouching down to pick up an old plate. Not old enough though, he thought, frowning a little, and then turned to show the plate to Emil who just watched him quizzically.

"Uh... it's a plate, Lalli. You don't have those back home? I mean I know Finns don't have pretty much anything, but still..."

Lalli shrugged. Either Emil understood it or he didn't, and with that he let go of the plate. It fell on the floor with a loud clatter and the lights went out. There was a momentary silence and then someone clapped his hands together. The lights returned.

"HA HA!" Emil said, for once happy that he definitely knew what was going on. "It's got a clapper switch attached! They're really expensive, based on old world technology, I used to have one in my bedroom when we still - you know." Lalli stared at him for a while, trying to figure out what had made Emil suddenly so happy, and then slowly raised his hands and clapped them together. The lights went out. Emil clapped again, lights on. Lalli clapped, and this time when the darkness came he hit his palms together immediately, turning the lights back on.

He froze on the spot.

 

_"PleasepleasePLEASE notice that thing!" he's whimpering quietly to the pool of water, unable to tear his attention away from it. "I have to do something. What can I do, I have to do something." He fights back the urge to hit the water in frustration, all that would serve would be to break the image again._

_I_ _f he could only merge dreamworld and reality, if only for a moment he could - then he would - he has no idea what he'd be able to do, but something. He clasps his hands together, wishing with all his might that he could somehow be awake and also help. Underneath, thin lines of light, so faint they're almost impossible to see, begin to slowly make their way across the floor of the room Emil and Lalli are in, taking sharp turns here, spreading out in half circles there, creating some kind of a complicated pattern._

 

For once Emil understood Lalli immediately without a word being spoken. He turned around slowly. Had he read the little diary with a bit more thought he would have known they were now meeting Jytte, the one who once lied about her name and immunity to be able to join the land reclaiming effort, but at the moment none of that really mattered anyway. Now there was just a reddish mass, bloated and covered in large blisters, moving slowly towards them.

"Ru - RUN!" Emil shouted and the lights went out. He cursed a bit, this was the downside of a clapper switch... any sudden, loud noise activated it. Complete darkness engulfed them for a moment, and then both Emil and Lalli clapped their hands almost at the same time. Lights on - lights off. Emil clapped again, and again the lights turned on for a fraction of a second, but Lalli had had the same idea and they were soon back in darkness.

"Stop clapping!" Emil screamed and fought to get the last clap. "Stop clapping!" Lalli hissed and did the same. The lights flickered madly on and off, making the advancing troll look like it belonged to an animated film. Below them little slivers of blue were drawing something onto the floor. "STOP CLAPPING!" "Stop clapping!" "STOP CLAPPING!"

As if by some agreement they both lunged at each other in a desperate attempt to make the other one stop, and grasped each others hands.

 

_"PleasepleasePLEASE!"_

 

The pattern on the floor was completed, lit up and blossomed outward. For a moment the house seemed to be holding its breath until the decayed roof began to leak up little streams of light, and a second afterwards the whole building exploded. Bits of troll and old house rained down around them as Lalli and Emil sat in the middle of the remains, still holding each others hands tightly, somehow being the only things left in one piece.

"We... well done, whatever it was that you did."

Lalli nodded in response. However Emil had exploded the house he'd done it with impeccable skill. No wonder Swedes had such a reputation for being efficient.

After a while they stood up, made a wordless promise to each other to never, ever speak of any of this to anyone, and unattached their hands.

 

_The mage sleeps._

_Reynir breaths out a sigh of relief. Something did work out, although of course this is just a dream and it could be that nothing that he just saw has even happened in reality. He wonders fleetingly why he didn't simply try to wake Onni up to ask for his opinion._

_He gets on his feet, walks over to him and bends down, and for some reason he doesn't understand himself kissing him lightly before heading out seems like the most natural thing in the world._

**Author's Note:**

> "Lalli, sine... eeeh... nukkua. Nyt." = "Lalli, yoo... eeeh... to sleep. Now."


End file.
